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This unique collection of documents with commentary explores the meaning of absolute monarchy by examining how Louis XIV of France became one of Europe's most famous and successful rulers. The documents, newly translated and carefully selected for their readability, examine the problems of the Fronde, Colbert's grasp of the economic and fiscal dimensions of the kingdom, the taming of the rural nobility, the interaction of royal ministers and provincial authorities, the repression of Jansenists and Protestants, popular rebellions, and royal image-making.

WILLIAM BEIK is professor of history at Emory University. An authority on the social and institutional history of seventeenth-century France, he is the author of Abolutism and Society: State Power and Provincial Aristocracy in Languedoc (1985), which won the 1986 Herbert Baxter Adams Prize of the American Historical Association, and of Urban Protest in Seventeenth-Century France: the Culture of Retribution (1987). He has written numerous articles and is coeditor of the New Approaches to European History series at Cambridge University Press.

Foreword

v

Preface

vii

List of Illustrations

xv

PART ONE Introduction: Louis XIV and French Absolutism

1

(16)

Absolutism in Theory

2

(1)

French Absolutism in Practice

3

(1)

The Landed Nobility

4

(2)

The Robe Nobility

6

(3)

The Royal Commissioners

9

(1)

The Catholic Church

10

(2)

The Urban Bourgeoisie

12

(2)

The Lower Classes

14

(2)

A Note about the Text

16

(1)

PART TWO The Documents

17

(202)

Confronting French Society during the Fronde

19

(31)

Paris Rebels against the Crown

22

(7)

Madame de Motteville's Account of the Parisian Disturbances in August 1648

24

(5)

A Mazarinade against the Queen and the Cardinal

29

(6)

An Intimate Discussion between the King and the Queen Regent, His Mother, concerning the Affairs of the Day

30

(5)

The Parlementaires of Aix Strike Back, 1649

35

(5)

Haitze's Account of the Uprising in Aix, 1649

36

(4)

Agen Is Seduced by the Princes

40

(4)

An Account by Bru, Bookseller 1652

41

(3)

A Revolutionary Party in Bordeaux: The Ormee

44

(6)

Apology for the Ormese

45

(2)

The Ormee Abolishes the parlement of Bordeaux

47

(3)

The King and the Aristocrats at Court

50

(32)

The King and His Family

55

(8)

Mademoiselle de Montpensier

55

(1)

Saint Maurice

56

(3)

Primi Visconti

59

(4)

The World of the Court

63

(19)

Saint Maurice

64

(3)

Primi Visconti

67

(4)

The Princess Palatine

71

(7)

Exechiel Spanheim

78

(4)

Managing France

82

(26)

Colbert's Instructions for the Commissioners Who Have Been Sent into the Provinces, September 1663

85

(6)

Financial Memorandum by Colbert, Addressed to the King in 1670

91

(5)

Louis XIV'S Tax Flows

96

(12)

Reforming the Provinces: The Grands Jours d'Auvergne

108

(13)

Letters Patent for the Establishment of the Grands Jours

109

(1)

Excerpts from the Memoirs of Esprit Flechier

110

(11)

Reforming the Provinces: Interaction with Burgundy

121

(2)

Letters to and from Burgundy

123

(24)

Brulart to Mazarin, Dijon, January 5, 1660

124

(1)

Brulart to Mazarin, Dijon, April 20, 1660

125

(1)

Conde to Colbert, Dijon, June 18, 1662

126

(3)

Brulart to La Vrilliere, Dijon, January 31, 1663

129

(1)

Louis XIV to Brulart, Paris, February 13, 1663

129

(1)

Bouchu to Colbert, Dijon, February 14, 1663

130

(1)

Bouchu to Colbert, Dijon, February 17, 1663

131

(2)

Brulart to La Vrilliere, Dijon, February 21, 1663

133

(1)

Colbert to Bouchu, June 5, 1663

133

(1)

Bouchu to Colbert, Dijon, November 13, 1663

134

(1)

Brulart to Chancellor Seguier, Dijon, December 16, 1663

135

(1)

Bouchu to Colbert, December 10, 1664

136

(1)

Bouchu to Colbert, Dijon, January 25, 1665

137

(1)

Brulart to La Vrilliere, Dijon, January 25, 1665

138

(1)

La Vrilliere to Brulart, Paris, February 3, 1665

139

(1)

Bouchu to colbert, Port Digoin, October 30, 1665

140

(1)

Bouchu to Colbert, Dijon, March 21, 1666

141

(1)

Bouchu to Colbert, April 21, 1666

142

(1)

Bouchu to Colbert, Auxerre, November 4, 1667

142

(2)

Bouchu to Colbert, Dijon, June 23, 1669

144

(1)

The Viscount Mayor and Echevins of Dijon to Colbert, July 14, 1669

145

(1)

Bouchu to Colbert, Dijon July 14, 1669

146

(1)

Colbert to Bouchu, Paris, December 19, 1670

146

(1)

Meeting the People of Dijon

147

(9)

Brulart to Louvois, Dijon, June 1673

147

(1)

Request by the City Council of Dijon for a Monitory, November 21, 1668